How To Find True Happiness
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What Martha Washington once said still rings true, “The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.”

Happiness is achievable, but it entails some effort and the right attitude. We must have the proper attitude and outlook in life to be able to focus and condition ourselves on being happy in all the challenges we face.

Between our physical and mental being, the mind has the greater influence for most of us. The body, once it is well-taken care of and sustained with basic necessities in life, can easily function. However, the mind automatically records every event, no matter how trivial. Therefore, we must be on guard with what is recorded in our mind because it can have an effect on our levels of happiness.

Marcus Aurelius cautions us, "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature."

Inner peace greatly comes from having love and compassion in our life. The more we feel loved and the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. We have peace of mind if we do not have enemies. This helps remove our fears and insecurities, and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we may encounter.

As long as we live in this world, we are bound to encounter problems. After all, the world is not “perfect.” If we just stop to demand or expect things to be perfect, then being happy may become easier. If, at times, we lose hope and become discouraged, we should remember that there is an opportunity present in the problem. We only have to search for it.

Being realistic increases our capacity to overcome troubles. With this kind of attitude, each new obstacle can be seen as another opportunity for improvement. Let us cite one example: Two men have just lost their jobs. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Mr. A. decides to take it as an opportunity to explore new things and find a better job. Mr. B., also facing the same circumstances, decides to jump off a twenty-storey building to end it all!

Here we see how two persons react differently under the same situation. It only means that only we can decide on how to react to every event that happens in our lives. Being happy is not always easy. It can be one of the greatest challenges we have to face in life, since it requires all the determination, persistence, and self-discipline that we can gather. It also takes a lot of maturity to be able to take responsibility in choosing to focus on what we have, rather than on what we do not have.

As long as we impractically yearn for much more than what we have, in terms of wealth or luxury, we will be unhappy. This is different from having a passion or desire and being motivated to reach it, wherein we are excited or thrilled in our journey to attain it.

Some people feel they do not have enough. How much is enough?

For most of us, enough is a little more than what we have. We often get envious of what our richer neighbors have. Sometimes, we fail to realize how lucky we are, compared to those who are less fortunate. An increase in wealth does not guarantee happiness.

It is obvious that happiness does not come from material things that we focus on everyday. To discover the secret to achieving contentment and happiness is to know how to enjoy what you have and manage the desire for things currently beyond our reach.